Heaviest object removed from stomach

"Trichobezoar" is the medical name for a hairball, which occurs as a result of "trichophagia" - the eating of one's own hair (from the Greek for "hair eating"). The largest trichobezoar surgically removed from a human was a hairball weighing 4.5 kg (10 lb) found in the stomach of an unnamed 18-year-old woman treated at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, USA, in November 2007. The excised trichobezoar measured 37.5 x 17.5 x 17.5 cm (15 x 7 x 7 in). A bezoar is a mass of swallowed material trapped in the stomach; a trichobezoar is therefore a mass of swallowed hair. (A tracheabezoar is a similar hairball trapped in the trachea.) In this case, the trichobezoar was removed in open surgery by Drs Ronald M Levy and Srinadh Komanduri (both USA) after attempts to remove it laparascopically failed. The patient was reexamined after one year and found to be in good health and no longer eating her hair. The eating of hair (trichophagia) is also known medically as Rapunzel Syndrome, after the Brothers Grimm fairy tale character with very long hair.